Perhaps, in fact, it's been your experience that the closer you got to the inner workings of the church, the more you came away not impressed and inspired but disappointed and disillusioned. The world's wonders have precision and grace, but the church seems to be characterized more by disharmony and disagreement, by hypocrisy, petty wranglings, and hallway gossip. You like the church, you're committed to the church, but being a part of the church sometimes takes a lot more effort than it seems it should.
I understand that.
But I want you to try pulling away for a moment, looking past the people and personalities, thinking bigger than what you see with your eyes or remember from your childhood, and begin seeing the church for what it really is — and whose it really is.
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I want you to catch the wonder again. I want to exhort you to see the church of God in the same way the God of the church sees it.
Let us exalt the founder of the church
You've probably heard it said, "The church is not a building; the church is its people." And that's very true. But I believe the first place to look to see the wonder of the church is not toward its people (as sweet, kind, and thoughtful as they may be — or as harsh, stern, and bullheaded as they may be) but toward its Founder and Leader, its reason for being.
The church — your church — belongs to Jesus Christ. And it is from him that the church derives its wonder because
- he is its strength, its source, and its Savior;
- he is the life and truth that both supports and sustains it;
- he has assumed the responsibility for carrying it safely into the future;
- and he has secured its victory for all eternity.
You see, I could tell you in all honesty that the church is the largest institution that has ever existed on the face of the earth. Current research indicates that nearly 1.9 billion people in the world today profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I could take a giant step further and tell you that by the end of the twenty-first century — at the present rate of growth — approximately five billion people will be members of the visible church on the earth. And these numbers don't take into account the untold millions of others who have already died in Christ and are dwelling even now in his very presence. These are staggering numbers — surprising to some — and in one sense they go a long way toward impressing the unconvinced that the church is not on the way out but, rather, on the way up.
However, we who are members of the church don't have to rely on our numbers to give us weight and significance. We don't have to depend on acceptance and popularity in order to consider ourselves part of something valuable and important.
We must merely see Jesus. He is all the glory the church ever needs.
Look carefully into his eyes again and hear what he has to say about his church.